THE GAME BREEDER 



77 



these birds plentiful and cheap in the 

 markets since we know the sportsmen 

 will enjoy shooting them and the people 

 will enjoy eating them. Let us stop 

 saying the birds are "doomed to extinc- 

 tion" and lend a hand to making them 

 profitably plentiful even in the States 

 where they are extinct. 



This is the first of a series of articles 

 about the prairie grouse. It will be fol- 



lowed by articles describing the food 

 habits of the birds and the best methods 

 of introducing them and propagating 

 them abundantly. 



Readers who can furnish any grouse 

 or eggs are requested to write to our 

 supply department. We wish to procure 

 as many birds and eggs as possible. Our 

 advertisers will pay excellent prices fof 

 any number of birds or eggs. 



THREE PLANTS FOR DUCK FARMS. 



By W. L. McAtee, 

 Assistant Biologist U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



[This article is from an important bulletin, "Eleven Important Wild Duck Foods," by the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture. The Bureau of Biological Survey which contributes the bul- 

 letins about the game foods, performs an important and valuable service. This bulletin about 

 duck foods should be followed by another describing the methods of breeding wild ducks for 

 food and the profits which are made by wild duck breeders in the many States which now 

 permit such industry. The Department should call attention also to the fact that the New York 

 markets are closed to the breeders of other States and should suggest that the opening of this 

 market soon would result in an abundance of game. Mr. Clyde B. Terrell, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 

 is the principal dealer in the plants eaten by wild fowl. His advertisement appears regularly in 

 The Game Breeder. — Editor.] 



The plants considered under this head 

 are distinguished by rankness of vege- 

 tative growth, comparative unimportance 

 of their seeds as duck food, and lack of 

 fleshy rootstocks and tubers. These 

 qualities render the plants generally un- 

 desirable for propagation as wild-duck 

 foods, but they are the very things which 

 make them valuable for duck farms. As 

 a rule abundant green food is available 

 to wild ducks, but the birds usually have 

 to search for seeds, fruits, tubers, and 

 like forms of concentrated nutriment. 

 The conditions on a game farm are just 

 the reverse. The birds are supplied 

 grain food constantly, but need rough- 

 age, particularly of naturally suitable 

 kinds. Plants of rapid, luxuriant growth 

 are necessary and all requirements are 

 fulfilled by water-cress, water-weed and 

 coontail. 



The three plants just mentioned are 

 not recommended for planting in waters 

 where any other growth is desired, since 

 they are such rank growers that they 

 are apt to take complete possession. 

 One of them namely, coontail, has con- 



siderable value as a wild-duck food, 

 however, and may be tried in waters 

 where other plants have failed. 



On duck farms best results will be 

 obtained if the unit system of ponds be 

 adopted. Ducks can be turned into one 

 pond at a time, and when a pond is eaten 

 out it may be resown, screened off and 

 allowed to make a new crop. Under 

 favorable conditions water-weed and 

 coontail will grow 6 inches a day. 



Water- Cress. 



Knowledge of the importance of 

 water-cress as a duck food is derived en- 

 tirely from breeders of wild ducks, who 

 almost without exception consider it a 

 valuable plant for a duck farm. Not 

 only is it relished, but it is said to grow 

 so fast in some places that the ducks 

 cannot eat it out. 



Water-cress (Sisymbrium nasturtium- 

 aquaticum) either floats in the water, 

 rooted only at the lower end, or creeps 

 along on mud or in shallow water, 

 throwing out roots at every joint. It 

 is a smooth, fleshy plant, with divided 



